11.16.2005

Robot attack drones

U.S. military officials said the Air Force has honed the use of unmanned aerial vehicles to target and kill snipers and insurgency bombers in efforts to ambush U.S. military convoys and combat patrols.

'The use of UAVs has been critical in monitoring convoy routes for IEDs [improvised explosive devices] and their operators,' an official said. 'But with strike UAVs we will be able to hit them immediately. It's quite a deterrent.'"

I suppose the obvious attacks against convoys will fall off, while pre-planned placement of IEDs and landmines and other remotely detonated devices will increase.

It will be an unending game of cat and mouse. In the case of Iraq (and possibly Iran soon), unfortunately the only way out of the mess will be the transfer of all security matters and the incumbent casualties to the locals. Only the locals can apply the pressures needed to stop pre-planned attacks on their own people. High-technology is typically foiled in the most elementary of ways by a persistant foe.